Interview with DJ Nabs
By: Where It Begins
Q. How did you come up with the name DJ Nabs?
A. My best friend Alton Lucas back in Durham NC, where I am from had started calling me Nabs. I was like what is Nabs? They were skinny Briscoe Cookies in 6th grade. I hated it, but it stuck. I started Djing 4 years later in 10th grade I became DJ Nabs the Briscoe Disco.
Q. What made you want to become a DJ?
A. It was the early 80’s I never had any interest in rapping. I did try to break dance, but it did not work out and I became a DJ.
Q. How did you get in with being a DJ for So So Def?
A. With So So Def I started it with Jermaine with him making mixtapes and at that time. I was on Radio and V103. When Jermaine finally got a deal with So So Def this was after Kris Kross. For Kris Kross which I ended up Djing for in 1992 which was Jermaine group was not on So So Def they were on Rough House Records out of Philly. Then Jermaine got So So Def recording that we now know, and that first group was Xscape with 1 DJ for them before at that time. I ended up meeting Jermaine through my friends Arrested Development who had a hit that same year as Kris Kross called Tennessee. Hot 97.5 same thing. I known Jerry Smokin B who is a radio legend and he called me in 95 that we had a new rap station and wanted me to come on over. I was at V103 at the time. A year later they asked me again and I decided to go to Hot 97.5 in 1996 they were a year old at the time.
Q. What differentiate you from the rest of the DJ’s?
A. We all are different, it’s just tapping into your own personal superpower that’s how I describe it. I haven’t always felt like I wasn’t good enough but that’s what made me practice a lot. I know I am a really good DJ and that I am passionate about it and the more that I draw from my own individual vibe that’s how I create things like Old School Sundays at Clyde that people still talk about when I repost my videos. People repost it because they still feel it. Most of all I just try to be me.
Q. Can you give any advice to upcoming DJ’s?
A. Stay true to your craft whatever that may be and then if you are the type that can master more than one craft then do that. Master that craft, master the next one that’s how you become a prince to me. Prince was a genius, a writer, ranger, musician, performer. Djing is not one thing you can produce being on the radio is different being a music director on stage is different like production not just producing music but producing the show producing the event. I can produce at Las Vegas shows then produce Atl Crunk music fest, I can produce something on Tom Joyner family reunion. As a DJ we have the ability to master that craft.
Follow DJ Nabs at @Djnabs
To read the full interview go to https://issuu.com/cecewibnet/docs/final_wib-revision__8_
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